ISA
1945
We, too, 've been waylaid by Time's robber band,
And yet, the Poet's rhyme it cannot thieve,
Nor can it plunder what we both believe,
As long as we two travel hand in hand.
Some roads are in the darkness, some must pay
A heavy-earned price for to find the light,
Yet our own road was lit up and full bright,
Come from afar, and leading far away.
Where it shall take us, none knows, but your Guide,
Your Angel - trust Him, and His light let's trust,
Down in this world with horror overcast,
Down in ist depth as yet unclarified.
Alexander von Bernus: Isa 1945. In: Aus Welt und Überwelt. Dornach 1995. S. 41.
Ins Englische übertragen von Florin Bican.
Far away from here
The wild and sacred Temple Beast
Comes in my sleep, comes from the East.
My sleep's a mace, my dreams - I dread,
Penance hangs heavy overhead.
My dreams - I dread, my sleep's a mace
From long before both time and space.
The wild and sacred Temple Beast
Is raised in you again, like yeast.
I've recognized you by clear sight -
Both dream and world did us unite.
I was the Temple Priest before,
And you loved me for evermore.
The wild and sacred Temple Beast
In night and deathly lust does twist.
Bull, Lion, Eagle, Angel -wings -
It lies upon me as the Sphinx.
And somewhere, far away from here,
Time and Space merge and disappear.
Alexander von Bernus: Von hier sehr weit. In: Aus Welt und Überwelt. Dornach 1995. S. 42.
Ins Englische übertragen von Florin Bican.
Words spoken from Beyond
From him, who in life
Was Alexander von Bernus
For Isa - added to his last will and testament
I'm uttering these words while my mouth is shut tight;
The soul is still around the flesh it fled.
I've overcome the darkest hour of the night:
Dying is hard; it's not hard to be dead.
I know: the Realm of Death may also pose a threat,
And there are places where light never fell,
Just like the years we spent upon this earth, and yet
Jesus lives in the world beyond as well.
Jesus is Lord over the living and the dead,
He shall forgive me what I've left undone.
Under my feet the Ten Commandments did I tread,
And yet I did my best under the sun.
It's hard work to be man, and hardest for a bard,
To whom the names of all he sees are known.
The Bard has such a lot of faces, that it's hard
For him to tell at last which one's his own.
Perhaps one sound of all my verse, one scattered grain,
Has found its way to Jesus - only one:
Then everything I've done on Earth is not in vain,
For each of us is the Prodigal Son.
It' s time now, to this earth my last goodbye I'll say -
Oh, all the things and all the love it gave -
Again, in a new body, I shall return some day -
Only my empty husk sinks in the grave.
Isa, now Time is taking me away from you;
And yet I know we do not have to part:
Night after night into your dreams I'll come anew.
I'll be with you, beloved child of my heart.
As I say these, we have already said goodbye:
Oh, Isa, do remain for ever mine!
Then shall the shadow world I enter when I die
Light up around me with your love, and shine.
I'll find it hard to leave what cannot follow:
The bonds of love are difficult to break.
In the beginning, Death shall make us hollow,
And free our life-drive from its constant ache.
As I've been living upon Earth for all this time,
I'll now be moving to the spheres, and
Perhaps, from over there, I'll hear my verses chime,
Whenever they are read throughout the land.
The coffin closes now! - I loved to be alive!
And yet I now there's Heaven, too, above,
And Jesus shall forgive the dead, when they arrive,
If they the Earth's beauty so did love.
Alexander von Bernus: Von drüben gesprochen.
In: Aus Welt und Überwelt. Dornach 1995. S.49
Ins Englische übersetzt von Florin Bican.